People v. Weinberg

SCOTT, J.,

pro tem.

Defendants, husband and wife, were convicted in count one of arson and in count two of burning insured property, and from such judgments each appeals.

In January, 1934, defendants occupied a rented dwelling at the beach in Venice, in which they had installed their own furniture and possessions, which had been insured for $2,500 against fire. On the evening of the fire defendants and their two children locked the house and went to the amusement zone. An hour or so later a neighbor noticed smoke and flames coming out of defendants’ chimney and made an entrance. There was fire in the fireplace and in an overstaffed chair fifteen to twenty feet away, and much smoke. The fire department arrived shortly thereafter. A battalion chief smelled something like kerosene on the rug in the front room. A runner rug was saturated with something which he thought was kerosene. Wood was littered in front of and in contact with the wood burning in the fireplace, having a similar odor. A puddle of the liquid substance was on the floor in the bedroom under a crib. An open door led into a closet where there were clothes, smelling of the same substance. Some wall paper had been burned and had curled up, and still had sparks of fire on it. A window shade and curtain had been burned off and a radio had a little fire in it. Two-thirds of the surface of the rug in the front room was scorched and a portion leading across into the bedroom was burned through to the floor. In the bedroom were crumpled papers on the floor and in the doorway leading into the closet. The captain of the arson squad observed these conditions, and when defendants had returned home shortly after 11 o’clock he questioned Mrs. Weinberg about the liquid. She called it cleaning fluid and stated she had used it on the rugs and her husband’s coat in the closet, and that she might have spilled some on the floor in the bedroom and on the clothing, rags and papers on the closet floor. The can in which she claimed she kept the fluid contained about a teaspoonful of a liquid smelling like kerosene, and had dust all around the top. The evidence was ample to show the criminal origin of the fire.

[193]

After the fire defendants went through the house with the captain of the fire department, and Mr. Weinberg said he guessed $700 to $750 would cover the loss. Proof of loss of $273 was submitted. After his arrest he agreed to accept $50 in full settlement. The neighbor who had first discovered the fire and had entered the house testified that after the preliminary hearing in this case Mr. Weinberg called at his house and said “that it would help him (Weinberg) if I said the screen was over the fireplace”.